R/V Atlantic Explorer

The 170' R/V Atlantic Explorer is owned and operated by BIOS in compliance with the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) as a general purpose oceanographic vessel. The RVAE is equipped with navigational, communications, laboratory, and mechanical facilities to support a wide range of oceanographic research. Among the ship's many operational capabilities are: deploying and recovering deep ocean instrumentation and moorings, conducting CTD casts, chemical sampling, and gear testing.

The R/V Atlantic Explorer provides scientists and research teams with a variety of resources, including:

Main, aft, and forward labs;

Teaching lab;

CTD garage;

Stern and starboard A-frames;

Flow-through seawater system;

ADCP ocean profiler;

Q-water (RO) system;

22 scientific berths;

Shared-use radio-isotope van.

For a complete profile of the RVAE and its specifications, please refer to the Cruise Manual. Additional information, including current ship schedule and ship operations information, can be found on the Ship Ops page of the BIOS website.

Please note: Requests for ship time may originate from scientists located at any university or institution. Ship costs for National Science Foundatation (NSF)-supported research projects are provided by NSF directly to BIOS as part of their annual NSF fleet support grants. Investigators seeking support from agencies other than NSF should include ship costs in their budgets to those agencies. Partially funded researchers may apply for a grant-in-aid from BIOS toward some of their "in house" costs.